November 13, 2007

Kinetic Sculpture Race Founder Dies

Hobart Brown, the man who 39 years ago brought the Kinetic Sculpture Race phenomena to Arcata, CA that has now swept through cities all over America and as far away as Poland and Australia passed away last week on Nov 7.

After Hobart created the five-wheeled, 5- 1/2 foot-tall red contraption with wrought-iron curlicues, a steering wheel and a surreylike top he called "The Pentacycle, that you see pictured here,

ten other local artists created pedal-powered, wacky works of art of their own so they could race him on on Mother's Day 1969. What began as a one-block dash, has since grown to an Arcata-to-Ferndale trek across 42 miles of land, water, sand and mud. And the sculptures have become increasingly elaborate and wacky.

It was Hobart's zany way of doing his life that helped to expand the consciousness for what is possible for human power. Because he made it fun, it was his action that inspired countless tinkerers all over the the world to experiment with new ways to move one's self about in the absence of motor propulsion. He showed the world that pedal power did not have to be limited to the upright bicycle design as we know it.
With Hobart's passing, we lost the man who held the light for a lot of the out of the box thinking that defines bicycling today.